14th March, your problem

It’s Ben cameo Monday again! And the signs that he’s not alright were rather stark, I thought.

Screencaps for this episode can be found here.

In the cafe, Lola’s distracted by the Gray gossip when her phone pings to let her know she’s overdrawn, just as Ben walks in for a coffee (which he ends up not getting.)
She confronts him about not putting the money in for Lexi this month. She’s perfectly entitled to the money obviously, whether she’s overdrawn or not – I guess she wanted to make a point, or maybe she’d been struggling if the payment was long past due but was hanging on, trusting the money would come through until it didn’t, and it’s just annoyed her. And obviously it is annoying if you’re relying on that money, but after the grief she gave Phil for not noticing that Ben was in a state after the attack, it’s a bit disconcerting for her to start mocking him for going out all night ‘enjoying’ himself instead of asking if things are alright. Not only that, but she knows him going out is a bad sign, having been there when he was marking the 3rd anniversary of Paul’s death in the club drowning his sorrows. And him not paying is framed as an unusual occurrence, highlighted by the fact that Lola clearly didn’t factor in the idea that he might not pay up, hence going into the red.
It’s a sign that something is wrong, but Lola thinks him being out all night is the reason he’s not got the money and so irritation has gotten the better of her. And obviously she’s not the first person to have commented on Ben being out all night, Kat having mentioned it the other week (the exact same phrasing in fact.) Kat could tell by the fact he looked tired, and Lola heard it from Callum, who I’m assuming is not with Ben during these all-nighters and therefore isn’t sure either what Ben’s actually doing either. He does know that Ben has trouble sleeping and has nightmares, but maybe it hasn’t clicked for him that that’s what Ben might be avoiding. Ben’s trying to fake it til he makes it with everyone, even Callum, even himself – so going out all night instead of just lying awake in bed all night might be him trying to do that.
Anyway, he promises that he’ll get Lola the money as soon as he can, through gritted teeth after being defensive about his all-nighter. He’s distracted then by his phone ringing, and judging by the conversation, the person on the end of the line has either rang before or is a recognisable name to Ben, as he answered immediately with an explanation that the number they’ve rang isn’t Phil’s, and he’s not around at the moment. Bit of a slip up with the phone, Ben holding it to his ear even though he can’t actually hear through it – and they’d been doing well showing him connecting to his receiver via Bluetooth! Maybe we can put it down to force of habit for Ben, since the ear he used was the ‘good’ one back when he wore a hearing aid. But I do think it was a dropping of the ball this time by the show.
Ben’s telling whoever it is on the other side of the call that he’s not dealing with ‘that’ side of the business anymore, but he’ll pass the message along. Considering a few years ago Ben would have absolutely taken whatever it is on behind Phil’s back, it’s kind of nice to see him washing his hands of it, even though Phil not entrusting him with any of it still stings no doubt. However him not putting up any kind of fight about it probably also feeds into this overall picture of him trying to save face while any duties he might have start to slip away from him.
Before he leaves the cafe (empty-handed, might I add again; not to get all symbolic but you could read it as another sign of him just going through the motions and not actually committing to things), Lola tells him to sort himself out – straight from the Phil Mitchell handbook, that. And Ben doesn’t have a retort. We linger on his expression as he turns back to look at Lola, as if he’s trying to muster up some of that cockiness, but the expression on his face falters and he looks away to leave again. That boy ain’t okay.

At the launderette, Kat arrives to find Ben sitting in her chair in the back office, and the mask is up as he delivers the news to Kat with no preamble that she’s got to sign for a package later on and stash it. And with my symbolism hat on again, him sitting in a chair in an office that doesn’t belong to him as if he owns it feels a bit like a reflection of the role in general that he’s trying to take on; faking it if you will.
At Kat’s remark that if he wants to order his grubby magazines he can get them delivered to his flat (who orders grubby magazines in this day and age?), Ben clarifies that it’s for Phil. He tells Kat it’s her problem since Phil doesn’t want him anywhere near the businesses. Obviously that still hurts, but despite that he’s still passing the message along about this package, so he still feels a sense of responsibility despite it all.
However, Kat’s not having it, because apparently she only agreed to help Phil, not take on dodgy packages. I’m not sure what she thought she was taking on when Phil signed everything over to her but I find it hard to believe she thought it was all going to be legit. She knows about the chicken shops! Maybe she just doesn’t want any of the dodgy stuff overlapping with the only business that’s actually above board, the launderette/cab company. Even so – a dodgy package is probably just the tip of the iceberg in Phil’s dodgy goings-on.
Ben simply tells her to talk to Phil if that’s the case – it’s her funeral. Or maybe it’s Phil’s depending on the package and what it’s going to be used for. There’s a smirk from Ben and it’s probably partly relief that he’s not having to contend with refusing to do something Phil has asked, and partly satisfaction that Kat’s already having trouble with the businesses, only a fortnight after telling Ben she can handle it all.

Also in this ep we see Tommy having to contend with more taunting from his bullies, and he ends up with a kitchen knife in his backpack. Remember when Phil explained away his parenting of Ben by saying he was stupid enough to pick up a weapon and that Tommy wouldn’t? Yeah. That knife is going to wind up with someone on the end of it, and I fear that it’ll be another trigger for Ben to essentially watch someone else suffer the same fate as him, with that rage that Phil instilled in him coming out in someone else with devastating consequences and him unable to stop it.
I don’t think the show are being subtle with their indications that Ben is struggling; we’ve seen it quite a few times since the pride party. The question really is where all this is heading; they’ve been bringing up a lot of trauma sources for Ben with the attack in January, Phil in prison and now this thing with Tommy which they brought Ben in on the other week. Interesting indeed.